Anyone Want Some Styrofoam?
My education about the ubiquitous white packing material began with an electronic smack-down from the good folks at Dow Chemical who invented Styrofoam(R). Their product is an extruded polystyrene, and far superior to the white material (expanded polystyrene) of everyday life. The real Styrofoam(R) was used by the US Navy to make life rafts during World War II, and continues to be used for insulation and craft projects. They specifically distance themselves from the coffee cups, coolers, and packaging materials that the uninformed commonly refer to as styrofoam.
While there is an abundant amount of information about the origin and uses of the various polystyrene derivations, there does not seem to be much guidance about how to safely dispose of it. The best general article I found takes on the recycling challenge directly. The website has a search feature to look for local drop-off sites, and suggests a number of re-use options for those of us that cannot recycle directly.
Recycling in Greater Hartford is overseen by the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority, who maintain links to the programs of the individual towns. Here in Hartford the curbside recycling program does not include polystyrene, which I learned this week (see photo). And I had even bundled the pieces with twine just like the newspapers and magazines – what a waste! The pickup people gave the pile a once-over and then continued on their way. Calls to the Waste & Recycling Division of the Hartford Department of Public Works and the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority have not yielded any definitive answers. I’ll update the post if one (or both) gets back to me with helpful information.
So I guess that leaves me to dispose of this stuff on my own – does anyone want some styrofoam? I have some excellent pieces for protecting the corners of rectangular items…
[...] about anything recyclable into the new bin, and makes no mention of bundling or sorting. They still won’t take my styrofoam, but that wouldn’t have scored me many points in the weight-based tracking system [...]